Principal Product Manager

Reports to: Chief Technology & Product Officer (CTPO)

Location: Position can be remote or onsite in Durham, CA

Base Salary Range: $130 - 140k

Please note: We are only able to consider candidates who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (green card holders) and who do not require current or future visa sponsorship of any sort.

Role Summary

The Principal Product Manager, Charging Platform, Hardware & Experience is a senior individual contributor and the CPO’s primary product partner, responsible for end-to-end ownership of the EV charging product ecosystem across software platform, charger hardware integration, interoperability standards, payments/authentication, and onsite customer experience.

This role carries full accountability for product outcomes across the lifecycle: problem definition, requirements, delivery, validation, and iteration. Working cross functionally with Engineering, Hardware/OEM partners, Quality, Site Design, and Brand/UX teams.

This is a highly technical product leadership role requiring deep familiarity with EV charging protocols and industry standards such as OCPP, ISO 15118 (Plug & Charge / AutoCharge), and interoperability interfaces such as OCPI, as well as authentication methods including RFID.

Key Responsibilities

1) Platform Product Ownership (Software + Systems)

• Own the product definition and delivery of the charging platform across charger to cloud, backend services, APIs, data flows, and operational tooling.
• Write and maintain technically rigorous PRDs, interface specs, state diagrams, sequence flows, and acceptance criteria suitable for engineering implementation and QA validation.
• Define product requirements for reliability and operational resilience, including offline behavior expectations (e.g., message caching, transaction settlement after reconnect) and observability/logging needs.

2) Charging Hardware & EVSE Integration

• Partner with hardware engineering, OEMs, and suppliers to define charger functional requirements and integration requirements between EVSE and backend systems.
• Ensure charger and network requirements align to applicable standards and supplier obligations such as OCPP 2.0.1, OCPP 1.6J certification, and ISO 15118 conformance testing expectations.
• Drive requirements related to payment terminal interaction and connected system communication, including integration test coverage for payment and authentication peripherals.

3) Interoperability & Standards Leadership

• Serve as internal subject matter expert and product owner for standards based interoperability, including but not limited to:

• OCPP charger protocol compatibility and certification alignment

• ISO 15118 support for Plug & Charge and related security/contract certificate flows

• OCPI roaming/data exchange requirements and command flows

• Convert standards requirements into testable product requirements and integration readiness criteria.

4) Payments, Authentication & Customer Access

• Own product requirements for customer authentication and session initiation methods including Plug & Charge / Auto‑Charge, RFID access, and roaming partner feature alignment where applicable.
• Partner with security/privacy stakeholders to ensure authentication and payments‑adjacent workflows align with legal/security requirements around customer data and operational controls.

5) Quality Partnership & Test Strategy

• Act as the product counterpart to Quality teams to define:

• test catalogs that cover frequent/rare conditions (including edge cases)

• integration testing requirements across charger, backend, payment terminal, and roaming flows

• performance and reliability validation requirements for HPC environments

• Define “Definition of Done” criteria for releases including readiness gates, defect thresholds, and go‑live telemetry requirements.

6) Customer Clinics & Field Validation

• Plan and execute structured customer validation activities (e.g., customer clinics, pilot cohorts, onsite usability sessions) to validate end‑to‑end charging experience performance and usability.
• Translate clinic findings into prioritized product improvements across hardware behavior, UI/UX, authentication flows, and operational support tooling.

7) Site Design Enablement (Lounge + Amenities + Digital Integration)

• Partner with Design to support charging site experience requirements, including:

• lounge and amenity integration requirements (wayfinding, access, dwell-time experience)

• digital touchpoints and on‑site UI elements that support customer experience goals

• Ensure on‑site experience requirements are coherent with brand standards and operational constraints (e.g., serviceability, uptime, customer support flows).

8) Brand, Design & UX Partnership

• Serve as product lead for customer experience alignment across Brand, Design, and UX teams.
• Define experience principles, customer journeys, and interaction requirements across mobile/web, in‑station HMI elements, and customer support experiences.
• Ensure visual and interaction standards are consistently implemented across partner integrations (e.g., OEM routing/search surfaces) where applicable.

Qualifications Required

• BS degree in a relevant field with a minimum of 10 years of product management experience with technical platforms, systems integration, or infrastructure software.
• Strong technical fluency across APIs, distributed systems, backend services, and hardware/software integration.
• Demonstrated ability to produce detailed, testable requirements and partner deeply with engineering and quality teams.
• Proven track record of driving cross‑functional delivery where product spans software, hardware, and operational field deployment.

Preferred

• Experience in EV charging, mobility, energy, payments-adjacent systems, or other standards-based technical ecosystems.
• Familiarity with OCPP, ISO 15118, and OCPI and their real-world implications for interoperability, security, and operations.
• Experience running customer clinics, pilots, or field validation programs for complex hardware-enabled products.

IONNA is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices through a competitive base salary, as well as offering bonus programs, comprehensive benefits such as medical, dental, vision, life, 401(K), and paid holidays. Actual base salaries are based on several factors unique to each candidate, including but not limited to skill set, experience, certifications, and specific work location. 

We are committed to an inclusive and diverse team. IONNA is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, marital status, or any legally protected status.